Your Questions Answered

From Singapore

Question:

Hi Mrs Phyllis,
I saw your advertisement on your blog that if i have any questions but i dont really have a question more like wanting to talk / fan mail. I come from a Singapore school and i LOVE your alice books they make me feel so content on the inside. If you want to know, i am not really a singaporean more like i come from England and i dont live in singapore just study there so i have to travel everyday. I know i may be saying too much than i should but i just wanted you to know that your alice books are the only thing that makes me happy except my family and food. 🙂 What i read in your alice books is sometimes what i wish my life was like. I am 13 and i have not ever had a boyfriend or stuff like that. So i know you might be busy and all so i shall make this short and sweet and say that I think u are inspiration to me and when i grow up i may be a writer like you or a phyciatrist like alice even though i think my parents expect me to be a doctor even though i know they will understand. Thank you for listening to me. I hope you will make more alice books in the future as i borrow them from my school library but i have to search in other places as i have read all the alice books in my library.
 Thank you for your writing and PLEASE continue to write and i know u may think i am just one girl in the thousands that LOVE your alice books but they are more than that to me so thank you.

Phyllis replied:
 
It’s wonderful to hear from Alice readers from many different countries.  I hope you will be able to find all 28 books in the Alice series.  Thank you so much for writing.

“I Like Him, He Likes Her”

Question:

I’ve never really succeeded in school. Academically I succeeded but not as much socially. I have plenty of friends. Un-fortunetly, Non of them are 

Phyllis replied:

I’m so glad you’re enjoying these “Alice bind-ups,” as the publisher calls these fat paperback books, each one containing the three books of each of Alice’s four years of high school.  I don’t know what the fourth one ( Alice’s senior year) will be titled–it’s not out yet.  I guess writing the 28 books of the Alice series was my substitute for raising the daughter  I never had.

Have Not Outgrown the Alice Books

Question:

I just wanted to let you know that I have been reading your Alice books since I was in the 3rd grade, (when I grew tall enough to see them on the shelf of our school library (: ) And now i am just going to start 6th grade in Augest. Your books have been the only one that I have not outgrown over the years. I hope to keep reading your books over till I graduate from college! 🙂

Thank-you so much for writing these awesome books!

Phyllis replied:

I get several letters a week from college girls who still enjoy the Alice books.   I think you will like them too for a long time to come.

Leaving Childhood Behind

Question:

I hope your summer is going well. I just wanted to write to you really quickly
to let you know that the Alice series has meant a great deal in my life. I’m
sure you receive letters all the time, but as a fellow writer I know it
personally never gets old for me to hear that my writing has affected someone in
any way shape or form. 

When I was twelve years old, my friend happened to be reading a book called
Alice in Blunderland at a rehersal for a play we were in. We were all very close
castmates and would read each others books/eat each others food/use each others
phones all the time backstage. Attracted by the funny title, I picked it up and
started to read. When she got off stage I told her not only was I borrowing the
book but I demanded to borrow any other books in the series she had as well. 

I am now a 19 year old college student. I have been there with Alice through the
ups and downs. Friends have come and gone from my life–including that friend,
who was once very, very dear to me–and I have hit highs and lows. I’m a
completely different person than I was when I was twelve, but Alice has been a
major constant for me. I remember reading the Grooming of Alice the summer
before eighth grade, tanning at the pool. I remember reading Dangerously Alice
on a vacation my family took to Florida. Every Alice book holds a memory for
me. 

I left my hometown of Madison, WI this summer for an internship in Washington,
DC. I was completely overwhelmed by my new job and having all sorts of difficult
feelings about my future and who I was meant to be. When I saw the latest Alice
book in Barnes and Noble, I of course snatched it up immediately. I cried during
the book as Alice discussed feelings of sadness–she was literally leaving her
childhood behind, as am I at this very moment. 

Alice McKinley is like one of my best friends, as insane as that may sound. When
the series is over in 2013, the year I graduate college, I will be devastated,
but similar to what Alice learns in Incredibly Alice, we all have to grow up and
leave the past behind at some point in our lives. 

I just needed to let you know that the Alice series has meant more to me than
you could ever know. Thank you so, so much for pouring your heart into Alice for
so many years.

Phyllis replied:

I was so touched by your letter, and am so happy to know that Alice has been a friend to you all these years.  The year you graduate from college, Alice graduates also, (and does so many more things, as it covers the her years from 18 to 60).  I have the feeling you will like the last book too, Always Alice, and will understand her choices.  It’s wonderful to hear from readers like you.

Alice On Board

“Just Like What Happened to Alice”

Please Don’t Be True

Hi, Mrs. Naylor.  im 15 and im going to be a sophmore this coming school year, and i just finished “Please Dont Be True” today and ordered “Alice in Charge” earlier. I allready have “Incredibly Alice” because i couldnt not buy it when i went to Barnes & Nobel the other day and its very tempting not to read it because i want to wait till i read “Alice in Charge” first. But i’ve only read the Alice Collections i haven’t read any of the others because i was just introduced to Alice about a month ago and i just saw those and i was like ohh ill read this. At first i went just looking for a book, and i saw these reallllly big books and so i picked it up and read the back to see what it was about and at first i didnt think it be all that good. But once i really got into the book, i couldnt help but turn page after page. I once read for 4 or 5 hours straight because i just didnt want to stop. Everytime i get bored i read Alice, or in the car even on vacation i read like on the beach and stuff. And my mom comes in and says “are you just gonna stay in here and read all day?” and im like “yep” haha. But what im saying is that (i know you probably get this alot) but i FREAKING L.O.V.E Alice. Like i just feel i can conect with her, not just because shes a teenager and going through highschool and stuff, but because i’ve gone through some of the same things she has. And i feel as tough i can really connect with her and no what another might have delt with that situation or what they would have done. And me and Alice have things in common also. Its just special, and these books are somthing that i would share with every girl i possibly could. I even treid getting my friends involved in it but “their too busy” they say. But i definatly will tell A LOT of people about. So pretty much this is my way of saying thankyou for writing these, you would probably my favorite author and ive never had one before. So thankyou

Phyllis replied:

I’m so glad you like the Alice collections–the “big” paperbacks, each containing the three books of each of her high school years.  (There is one still coming of her senior year, but we don’t have a title yet). 

So Unfair!!!!

, i just finished Intensely Alice, and it was SO UNFAIR!!!!! I was on the bus when i read the end of chapter 17 The Unthinkable, and i wanted to cry! And when i got home, i read it over and over again, trying to soak it in, but i just couldn’t accept it! I mean, when you read a book series with like 30 books in it and you are on the twenty-fourth, you become really attatched to the characters. And, ironicly enough, I was listening to Tim McGraw’s If I Died Today. My question is, how do authors do that?!?!  I plan on becoming either an author a language arts teacher or a singer, and if i become an author, i would cry even thinking about killing a character. HOW DO YOU DO IT?!?!?!?!

Phyllis replied:

I did cry when I wrote about it.  But in writing the Alice books, I’m not writing about some idealized life.  At some point all of us come face to face with death, usually a grandparent, but all too often it’s one of our friends–something we never imagined.  I try to create the most honest books I can, and Alice has to face it too.

We had So Many Things Planned…

Phyllis replied:

It is so hard to see a relationship begin to change, especially when you feel you have put so much into it, and given up a lot as well.   And there are a number of things that might be going on with him, from being so exhausted from work that he has little energy left to devote to you, to discovering that he’s just not as interested in the relationship as he thought he was.  Remember that it’s not just a person you fall in love with, it’s a type, and there are many, many others who, perhaps not just like him, will fulfill all the needs that this person did, and then some.  My advice would be to let him have a chance to miss you–to make the next phone call, or send the next text, or plan the next evening together.  Not as in, “Okay, see how you like it when I don’t answer messages, ” but in greeting him cheerfully when he calls, telling him about interesting things you’re doing on your own (which I hope you are), and, if he makes no suggestions about when to see each other next, end the call with a cheerful, “Okay, See you.”   People change, especially people your age, and this is truly the hard, but important, part of growing up.

Thanks for Creating a Character…

Question:

I hope this letter finds you in good health. I just felt like it was due time that I sent one of my favorite authors a piece of fan mail. I’m now 21 years old, about to enter my senior year of college and I have been reading the Alice books for around 12 years now, easily. I just wanted to thank you for creating a character that is so easy to relate to–and for making her have friends and family that we can relate to, also. I just ordered my copy of “Incredibly Alice,” and I am anxiously awaiting the arrival. It’s going to be a sad day when there are no more Alice books to look forward to, but that just means I’ll have to reread the series and pick up any details I’ve otherwise overlooked. Thanks for making Alice be such a big part of all of our lives.

Phyllis replied:

Thank you so much for taking time to write to me.  I love hearing from readers who have followed  Alice through their college years, and there seem to be so many of you.  I’m going to miss her too when the series is over, since she’s probably the daughter I never had, but then, if I’d had a daughter, perhaps I’d never have started the series.   I’m delighted to know she’s meant so much to you.